Garage Plan Could Spur Development
A section of downtown could be opened for new residential development, a state official said yesterday as he outlined a plan to alter the use of a parking garage and sell off its unused air rights.
The chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, Avi Schick, said the state was working with the city to convert a parking garage on West Street, by the entrance to the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, to a facility for commuter and tour buses from public automobile use. The move would unlock 3 million square feet of residential development rights for the area, Mr. Schick told attendees at a business forum hosted by Crain's New York Business.
The existing garage is owned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and sits on city land.
The potential creation of a bus garage, which Mr. Schick said would hold 175 buses, comes as welcome news to community residents, who have long complained of idling buses in the area.
"For 20 years, we've had buses down here, one after the other, idling in the streets as tourists wander around," the chairman of the financial district committee for Community Board 1, Edward Sheffe, said.
